The UCSB theater department’s Animal Farm (Tatty Hennessy adapted it from George Orwell’s 1945 novella) was submitted for production by student actor Gabriella Roberts, who was “deeply impacted” by the play’s “significance and power.” Animal Farm is an allegorical look at social revolutions begun with a demand for equality, but that fall prey to lust for power. Director Sara Rademacher calls the show raw and violent, saying, “There’s a lot going on in it that connects to our lives right now.”
The themes in the show are deeply relevant as Santa Barbara citizens stand up to an invasive militia. “It shows how power can slowly shift and how easily people can be influenced without even realizing it,” says Roberts. “The live performance makes it harder to distance yourself from the story.” Roberts plays Clover, a hardworking, compassionate horse who’s just trying to survive. “She wants to believe in the ideals of the revolution,” says Roberts. “Her arc is about awareness without agency…. The play asks the audience to consider how systems rely on cruelty and the silence of those who are trying to stay alive.”
On the other hand, Luna Aguilar calls her character, Squealer, a “scared, desperate individual who does inexcusable things in the name of survival. He represents the ease of manipulating the masses to maintain power.” As the pre-revolution promises made to the animals are abandoned, Animal Farm puts the audience in the uncomfortable (but necessary) position of considering their own reactions in similar circumstances. “As an audience member, it’s easy to say, ‘I would never do that,’ but the truth is, you don’t really know,” says Roberts.
See the show at UCSB’s Hatlen Theater February 20-22. “This play gives gut-wrenching richness to the simplicity of the original text,” says Aguilar. “In the same way that Animal Farm by Orwell was revolutionary for the time, our play version is what’s exactly right for today.”
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